Dedicated to wrestling with questions of faith, religion, and theology that arise in comic books and other pop culture media. Occasionally irreverent, rarely sacrilegious.

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Alan's Christian Comic Corner

The Unforogttens: Mission of
Tranquillity #1, Trinity
Comic Ministries, 1993. The untitled story is created by Timothy A. Gagnon.

I think it started with the Frank
Peretti novel “This Present Darkness,” and its sequel “Piercing the Darkness.”
These were published in 1986 and 1989 respectively. Those books both fed on a
growing interest in spiritual warfare in the evangelical church, and also
contributed to that growing interest. Many evangelical novels and albums of the
era reflected this interest, so a comic book featuring similar content makes
sense.

Three teens are performing a
Satanist ritual in the woods, and summon a demon. They are interrupted by a warrior
of God (called Faith), who appears to be an angel, but is in fact a human who
has been empowered by God to fight Satan and other evils. Two of the three teens
repent of their ways, the demon is expelled, and Faith meets up with two
similar beings. At the end of the issue, an unsuspecting hitchhiker appears to
be kidnapped by demonic forces.

There is one scene in particular
that surprised me. The lead character is Catholic, and his salvation came as a
result of a conversation with a priest, in a confessional. Evangelical publishing
is not known for taking ecumenical stances, so this scene stood out in a
positive way. It had a simple storyline and overly dramatic dialog, but there
were also interesting moments and subtle touches sprinkled throughout. Re-reading
more than two decades after first buying it was not the embarrassing experience
that I had thought it may have been.

Yes, this is a self-published
book, produced by an amateur creator. And some parts of it are definitely “amateurish.”
The lettering stands out in a negative way, as does the spelling of the word “tranquility,”
and the overall 1990s-ish nature of the art. And the book is a half an inch
taller than standard comics means that storing this issue has been a challenge.
But despite being crunched for more than two decades in bags and boxes and
bookshelves, this issue is in remarkably good condition. The paper quality is
surprisingly high, and this 20-year-old issue has not suffered a single tear or
a rip.

This black-and-white book
contains 30 pages of story, which is at least 5 pages longer than most
mainstream stories of the same period. Most comics of his era were priced in
the $1.50 - $2.50 range, so this book’s $1.95 cover price was appropriate. There
were three more issues of this title published, and they are on the
to-be-reviewed list.